Saturday, July 20, 2013

The heat wave continues, and our Breakfast Links are hot as well – our fav links of the week to other web sites, blogs, images, and articles, gathered from around the Twitterverse.
• Shameless 1790s gossip from the Adams family about the Vassall family, with added sex and gambling.
• Sailors' favorites: naval war kitties in hammocks, World War II.
• Breathtaking historical food artistry - molded puddings jellies, and pastries.
• A literally hot gentleman: Man Against a Background of Flames, attributed to painter Isaac Oliver, c. 1600.
• Irony par excellence: lining of bishop's miter is cut out of pages with medieval love poetry.
• What would a Regency lady put on her sunburn?
• Dress right for safety in the shipyard, WWII.
• Lemon meringue pie, first created by 19th c. Philadelphia pastry shop proprietress Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow.
• Medieval representations of the births of royal babies and other celebrated infants.
• Exquisite costumes of The Ballets Russes.
• Alice Austen's intimate & creative images of life in New York more than a century ago.
• The phantom of a great fire in Bryant Park, New York, 1858.
• What do the British and Irish Lions have to do with a ghost in 18th c. Donegal?
• Lady Margaret Douglas, niece of Henry VIII and a survivor of four Tudor courts.
• A short history of swan-herding.
• Library porn: truly breathtaking libraries from around the world.
• An exotic piece of lost 18th c. London: William Bullock's Egyptian Hall.
• Eighteenth century receipt for making gooseberry vinegar.
• It's July, 1813, and Lord Byron is displeased.
• Zootsuits in Chicago, 1946.
• Truly novel bookstores.
• An Indian court-martial in 1819 for letting a Rajah escape.
• Buying a stocked country store in 1836.
• American in Paris Thomas Jefferson describes the storming of the Bastille, 1789.
• A wealthy grain dealer breaks ranks and builds his hulking mansion far north of Millionaire's Row, New Yor, in 1875.
• The London Painters-Stainers Company and the house-painter.
• Baddeley Brothers, a rare survivor among printers in London still producing engraving, die-stamping, embossing, & debossing.
• Dr. Benjamin Rush attends a Jewish wedding in 1787, and finds it all fascinating.Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls and receive fresh updates daily!

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.